Notation
Note: The tunes below are recorded in what
is called “abc notation.” They
can easily be converted to standard musical notation via highlighting with
your cursor starting at “X:1” through to the end of the abc’s, then
“cutting-and-pasting” the highlighted notation into one of the many abc
conversion programs available, or at concertina.net’s incredibly handy “ABC
Convert-A-Matic” at

**Please note that the abc’s in the Fiddler’s
Companion work fine in most abc conversion programs. For example, I use
abc2win and abcNavigator 2 with no problems whatsoever with direct cut-and-pasting.
However, due to an anomaly of the html, pasting the abc’s into the
concertina.net converter results in double-spacing. For concertina.net’s
conversion program to work you must remove the spaces between all the lines
of abc notation after pasting, so that they are single-spaced, with no
intervening blank lines. This being done, the F/C abc’s will convert to
standard notation nicely. Or, get a copy of abcNavigator 2 – its well worth
it.[AK]

LITTLE BENCH OF RUSHES
[2] (An Beinsin Luacra). Irish, Slow Air (4/4 time). A
Mixolydian/D Major. Standard. One part. Source Dowd was a fiddler who played the
tune in the Feis Ceoil held in Belfast in the year 1900. Some of the tunes in
the “Unpublished Airs” competition were recorded on Edison cylinders, and were
later transcribed for publication, including Dowd’s “Little Bench of Rushes.”
Source for notated version: fiddler James Dowd (Ireland) [Darley & McCall].
Darley & McCall (Darley & McCall
Collection of Traditional Irish Music), 1914; No. 16, pg. 7.

LITTLE BIRDIE. Old‑Time, Song and Breakdown. Despite the similarity in names,
the song “Little Birdie” has nothing to do with the West Virginia fiddler tune
called “Birdie,” a ‘ragtime’ influenced piece.

LITTLE BLACK FOOT. Old‑Time, Breakdown. USA, North Ga. The tune may have plantation
origins. It was recorded by the Skillet Lickers as a fragment in their skit
"A Day at a Country Fair." Old Homestead
OHSC‑145, Skillet Lickers‑‑"A Day at the Country
Fair."

LITTLE BOY WENT
A-COURTIN'. Old‑Time, Breakdown. USA,
Mississippi. A Major. Recorded for the Library of Congress in 1939 by Herbert
Halpert from the playing of Lauderdale County, Mississippi, fiddler Frank
Kittrell.

LITTLE BROTHER OF MY
HEART ("Dearbratairin
O Mo Croide" or "Drahaareen-O Mochree"). Irish, Air (3/4 time). D Major
(Joyce/1909, Roche): F Major (Joyce/1890). Standard tuning. One part. In his
1890 edition of Ancient Irish Music
P.W. Joyce notes that this air was well-known all over the south of Ireland,
and that he had known both air and words since his childhood (in the 1840's in
Limerick). "This song, sung to the same air as 'Jemmy, My Thousand Treasures'
(which is an older song), was perhaps more familiar in Munster than that song.
I have many copies of it on ballad‑sheets, printed by 'Haly, Printer,
Cork'" (Joyce).

LITTLE BROWN JUG. American; Jig, Schottische (2/4 time) and Song Tune. D Major ('A' part)
& D Mixolydian ('B' part) [Cole]: D Major [Bayard, Ruth, Silberberg,
Sweet]: C Major [Ford]: G Major [Phillips]. Standard tuning. AB (Ruth,
Silberberg): AA'B (Bayard): AABB (Phillips): AA'BB' (Sweet). The tune goes to a
once‑popular college song, but it appears to have originally been
composed for the minstrel stage by one 'Eastburn', believed to be a pseudonym
for Joseph E(astburn) Winner (1837-1918). He copyrighted the melody in 1869.
J.E. Winner, as the name on the copyright goes, of Philadelphia, was the
younger brother of the composer and publisher Septimus Winner. “Little Brown
Jug” is credited to one Jas. Hand in Ryan’s
Mammoth Collection (1883), although this is considered unreliable. It has
been suggested that the second strain of the “Jug” tune is a variant of the
first strain of Irish melody “Tatter Jack
Walsh.”

***

Me and my wife, little black dog,

Crossed the creek on a hickory log;

She fell in, got stuck in the mud,

But I still hung to my little brown jug.

***

Despite its stage origins, the tune
quickly entered traditional repertoire and appears to have been widely
disseminated. “Little Brown Jug” was cited as having commonly been played at
Orange County, New York, country dances in the 1930's (Lettie Osborn, New York Folklore Quarterly), and it was
known at the same time at the other end of the country by Arizona fiddler
Kenner C. Kartchner, who said, "many an amateur plays this simple old
song" (Shumway). The tune was recorded for the Library of Congress by
musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph from Ozark Mountain fiddlers in the
early 1940's. Mt. Airy, North Carolina, fiddler Tommy Jarrell learned the tune
from his father, because the lyric "tickled" him. African-American
fiddler Cuje Bertram (Ky.) recorded the tune in 1970 on a home recording made
for his family. Another African-American fiddler, North Carolinian Joe
Thompson, played the tune in FCGD tuning. It was recorded on a 78 RPM by
Kanawha County, West Virginia fiddler Clark Kessinger (1896-1975).

***

“Little Brown Jug” was the second
tune that Missouri fiddler Art Galbraith learned as a boy, who received
instruction from his Uncle Mark (a three-fingered fiddler, the result of an
accident chopping corncobs), his cousin and others. Art’s father, no musician,
was proud of his son’s budding talent and was constantly prodding him to play
for anyone who would listen, and this was well-known in the family. One day the
young Galbraith attended a Fourth of July picnic on the James River that
featured a square dance:

LITTLE CELIA CONNELLAN
[1] (Sile Bheag Ni
Chonnalain).
AKA - "Sheala Ni Chonallain,"
"Sheela Beg Ni Chonallain,"
"Little Mary Cullinan." Irish,
Slow Air (4/4 or 2/4 time). D Dorian (Joyce): F Minor. Standard tuning. AB
(Joyce). There are several versions of this once-popular Irish song, composed
by the great Sligo harper Thomas Connallon, in either 1650 or 1660. "(The
Irish collector) Forde took a setting from Hugh O'Beirne and another from Paddy
Conneely (p. 254). I give these two settings here, as they differ considerably
from Bunting's two: notably they are plainer and less interrupted by
instrumental ornaments and variations...I think it likely that these two
versions from two skilled native players of (the composer Thomas) O'Connallon's
neighbourhood better represent his original composition than Bunting's do.
There is a simple and very pretty Irish song to tis air (sighile Bheag ni
Choindealbhain: Edw. Walsh, Irish Popular Songs, p. 94: Hardiman's Ir. Minstr.
I. 220), which sings smoothly to the two versions of the air given here. But
Bunting's two settings are so complicated ‑‑especially the first‑‑that
it is impossible to sing the words to them" (Joyce). Bunting's 1st version
is probably a harp rather than vocal version. Sources for notated version: the
version in Joyce was noted in 1846 from Hugh O'Beirne, professional fiddler
(Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim); Bunting noted his from harper Arthur O'Neill in
1792, according the the index of his 1840 collection. Joyce (Old Irish Folk Music and Songs), 1909;
No. 586, pg. 306. O'Sullivan/Bunting, 1983; No. 49, pgs. 78-79.

LITTLE DUTCH GIRL [1]. AKA and See "Goin'
Down the River." Old‑Time, Breakdown. USA; Missouri, Oklahoma. A
Major (Thede). AEae or Standard tunings. AABBCC. Thede speculates that the tune
originated in Dutchtown, Missouri. There appears to be two tunes called “Little
Dutch Girl” in the Ozark region, both connected with the Collins family. The
first, printed by Thede is from Willie Collins, the father of Earl, who is the
source for the second (see “Little Dutch Girl [2]”). Thede gives the following
lyric, sung to the tune.

LITTLE DUTCH GIRL [2].AKA and see “Liza Jane [3].” Old-time,
Breakdown. USA, Missouri. A Major (Beisswenger & McCann): G Major
(Phillips). Standard tuning. AB (Silberberg): AABB (Beissenger & McCann,
Phillips).According to Drew Beisswenger
(2008), both source Earl Collins and Missouri fiddler Bob Holt heard the tune
played in Douglas County, Mo., when they were young. This is the second “Little
Dutch Girl” tune associated with the Collins family; however, Marion Thede did
include this melody in The Fiddle Book (1967, collected from Oklahoma
fiddler Joe Wilsie) albeit under the title “Liza Jane No. 3,” perhaps because
these lyrics are associated with it:

LITTLE GIRL OF MY
HEART (Cailín beag mo
Chroidhe). AKA
and see "Colleen Bheag Machree,"
"How Can I Marry You."
Irish, Air (4/4 time). D Major/Mixolydian. Standard tuning. AB. O’Neill states
he frequently heard his parents sing this song when a boy near Bantry in west
Cork. The song tells of a girl who tries to conclude an engagement, only to
have her reluctant beau put her off by telling her he has a shortage in his
wardrobe; when she supplies the article, he demures and says he needs one more,
and so on. O'Neill (O’Neill’s Irish Music),
1915/1987; No. 19, pg. 19. O’Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies),
1903; No. 4, pg. 1.

LITTLE GOOD WIFE. Scottish, Slow Jig. One Part. A "goodwife" was once a term
for the mistress of a household. The tune appears in the Panmure MS #9454,
"Seventy Seven Dances, Songs and Scots Airs for Violin," c. 1675. Flying Fish, Robin Williamson ‑ "Legacy of the
Scottish Harpers, vol. 2."

LITTLE GRAVE ON
GEORGIA. Old-Time, Waltz. From North Georgia
fiddler Earl Johnson. The melody was also used by Uncle Dave Macon for his “Over
the Mountains.”

LITTLE
HEATHY HILL [2], THE (An Chnoicin
Fraoich). AKA -
“Knuckeen Free.” Irish, Air and Hornpipe. A Minor (O’Neill): G Minor (Joyce).
Standard tuning. AB (Joyce): AABB’ (O’Neill). O’Niell (1922) remarks: “In
the days of our fathers, ‘An Chnoicin Fraoich’, or ‘Little Heathy Hill’, both
as song and air enjoyed no little popularity in the province of Munster,
particularly in the counties of Cork and Kerry. As an air several settings of
the melody have been printed, but never as a hornpipe until now, and under its
colloquial name among the peasantry. It will be remembered that many notable
dance tunes, especially hornpipes and long dances, have been derived from song
airs, such as ‘The Blackbird’, ‘The Job of Journeywork’, ‘The Garden of
Daisies’, ‘Rodney's Glory’, and many others.” Joyce (1873) says “A setting of
this air has been given in Mr. John O’Daly’s Poets and Poetry of Munster (2nd ed., p. 70) with one
strain of an Irish song.” The title has been Englished as “Knocken Free” or
“Knucken Free.” Source for notated version: piper James Buckely (Limerick)
[Joyce]. Joyce (Ancient Irish Music),
1873; No. 71, pg. 72. O’Neill
(Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody),
1922; No. 312.

LITTLE HOME TO GO TO
[1]. AKA – “Got a Little
Home to Go to,” “I’m on My Way to Texas to Eat Cornbread and ‘Lasses.” AKA and
see “John Hoban’s Polka,” “Get Out of the Way of the Federals,”
“Seneca Square Dance,” “Waiting for the Federals.” Old‑Time,
Breakdown. USA; Illinois, Missouri, Texas, Oklahoma. G Major (Thede): D Major
(Beisswenger & McCann). GDad (W.S. Collins) or Standard (Bob Holt) tuning.
AABB. The tune has been recorded under this title by Missouri fiddlers Fred
Stoneking of Springfield, and Bill Graves, of Phillipsburg. Marion Thede
maintains that related tunes are “Saddle Old Mike,” “Saddle Old Spike” and “Saddle Old
Bob,” although this seems to be because of the lyrics and not the music.

***

O saddle ole Mike I tell you,

For I'm goin' away to leave you;

I'm goin' away to Texas,

To eat cornbread and 'lasses.

***

Got a little home to go to,

Got a little home to go to;

Oh I've got a little home to go to,

Oh I've got a little home to go to. [W.S. Collins]

***

Another version of the
words (from Arkansas) is "Goin Back to Arkansas to Eat Corn Bread and
'Possum Jaw" according to Thede, perhaps the inspiration for Arkansas
fiddler Skeeter Walden’s name for the tune as “I’m on My Way to Texas to Eat
Cornbread and ‘Lasses.” Mark Wilson identifies “Got a Little Home to Go to” as
a member of a family of tunes that includes “Old Coon Dog,” “Seneca Square Dance,” “Waiting for the Federals,” and
“Shoot that Turkey Buzzard,”
and gives the alternate title “Get Out of the Way of the Federals.” “Jones
County” is also a related tune. Wilson also sees melodic relationships with
“Pretty Little Girl with the Blue Dress On.” Drew Beisswenger adds that it is
similar to north Georgia fiddler Fiddlin’ John Carson’s “Hell Bound for Alabama.” Ira Ford
and R.P. Christeson both thought versions of “Hell Among the Yearlings” to be
similar to “Got a Little Home to Go to.” Beisswenger & McCann (2008) find
some evidence that the lyrics were linked to play-party fragments. Source for
notated version: W.S. Collins (Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma) [Thede]; Bob Holt
(1930-2004, Ava, Missouri) [Beissenger & McCann]. Beisswenger & McCann
(Ozark Fiddle Music), 2008; pgs. 62-63. Thede (The Fiddle Book), 1967; pg. 18‑19. Kicking Mule, Art Rosenbaum. Rounder
Records CD –532, BobHolt – “Got a
Little Home to Go to” (1998).

LITTLE HOME TO GO TO
[2].Old-Time, Breakdown. USA, Missouri. A Minor.
AEae tuning. AA’BB’. A second tune of the same name in Bob Holt’s repertory,
perhaps related to “Little Home to Go to [1].” According to Holt’s source, Doc
Gentry, the tune arrived in Missouri before the turn of the 20th
century from an Arkansas fiddler named Bob Wood. Wood was murdered on a saloon
porch in Missouri by a man in a jealous rage over a woman. Source for notated
version: Bob Holt (1930-2004, Ava, Missouri), learned from rural M.D. and
fiddler Doc Gentry (Douglas County, Mo.) [Beisswenger & McCann].
Beisswenger & McCann (Ozark Fiddle Music), 2008; pg. 63. Rounder Records CD –532, BobHolt – “Got a Little Home to Go to” (1998).

LITTLE HORNPIPE. American, Hornpipe or Reel. USA, Pa. D Major. Standard tuning. AAB.
"In this tune we again have a piece with an unstable and changeable second
strain. A Greene County tune in the Bayard Coll. (No. 243) has this first part
and an entirely different second. But it is not improbable that the two halves
of (this tune) really belong with each other, since when taken together they make
up a tune which gives strong indications of being derived from the well‑known
'Durang's Hornpipe,' a fiddle
tune popular among country musicians everywhere. Almost any popular collection
of country dances contains a version of 'Durangs;' a good set is in Ford, pg.
53; another is in Adam, No. 19" (Bayard, 1944). Source for notated
version: Mrs. Sarah Armstrong, (near) Derry, Pennsylvania, November 18, 1943
[Bayard]. Bayard (Hill Country Tunes),
1944; No. 34.

LITTLE HOUSE UNDER THE HILL,
THE (An Teac Beag Faoi/Taob an Cnoc/Cnuic).AKA and see “How Happy the
Soldier Who Lives on his Pay,” “Link
About.” Irish, English; Jig. England, Northumberland. G Major (Cole,
Cranford/Holland): D Major (O’Farrell, O'Neill). Standard tuning. AABB (Cole,
Cranford/Holland): AABBCC (O'Neill): AABBCCDDEE (O’Farrell, vol. II):
AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJKK (Kennedy, O’Farrell, vol. IV). O’Neill (1910, 1913)
finds the tune in O’Farrell’s Pocket
Companion for the Union Pipes (3rd edition, c. 1810) set in eleven parts,
and finds an “unmistakably” simple version of “Little House” under the title
“Irish Air” in “The Poor Soldier,” published in The Hibernian Muse (1787).It is sometimes ascribed to the mid-18th century Irish composer Walter
“Piper” Jackson (O’Neill, 1913, pg. 183 and 1910, pg. 103). The title appears
in Henry Robson's list of popular Northumbrian song and dance tunes ("The
Northern Minstrel's Budget"), which he published c. 1800. English composer
William Shield employed the melody for his song “How happy the Soldier.”
Flaherty's version almost qualifies as a separate variation. A fanciful story
is related by O’Neill (1913) concerning the early 19th century Tipperary piper
John Rotchford, nicknamed “Seaghan a Beannuighthe” (John the Blessed). It seems
that a gentleman, one “Old Butler,” of Williamstown, was entertaining one night
and boasted he had a better piper than one of his guests. As per the
arrangement, Rotchford and the other piper met “and played alternately all
night and until the break of day, because the judge was unable to decide as to
their respective merits.” The tie was finally broken when a skylark,
“proverbial for melody and early rising,” lit upon a windowsill near where John
was playing and tapped his approval of the performance as the piper played “The
Little House Under the Hill,” and attempted to sing along with the tune in birdsong.
O’Neill identifies “Link About” in Aird’s
Selection ofScotch, English, Irish and
Foreign Airs (1782-1797) as a version of “Little House…”, and says that,
curiously, the tune Aird did print with the “Little House…” title is a reel of
unknown origin. “The Little House Under the Hill” title appears in a list of
tunes in his repertoire brought by Philip Goodman, the last professional and
traditional piper in Farney, Louth, to the Feis Ceoil in Belfast in 1898
(Breathnach, 1997). New York researcher, musician and writer Don Meade notes
that accordion player James Keane recorded the tune as “The Last Bus to Drimnagh.”
Similarities to “Mysteries of Knock.”
Source for notated version: flute player and piper Tommy Hunt (b. 1908,
Lissananny, Ballymote, County Sligo) [Flaherty]. Cole (1000 Fiddle Tunes), 1940; pg. 58. Cranford (Jerry Holland: The
Second Collection), 2000; No. 293, pg. 104. Flaherty (Trip to Sligo), 1990; pg. 131. Kennedy (Jigs & Quicksteps,
Trips & Humours), 1997; No. 105, pg. 26. O’Farrell (Pocket Companion, vol. II), c. 1806;
pgs. 148-149. O’Farrell (Pocket
Companion, vol. IV), c. 1810; pgs. 113-115. O'Neill (Krassen), 1976; pg.
49. O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies), 1903/1979; No. 988, pg.
184. O'Neill (Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems), 1907/1986; No. 204, pg. 48. Ryan’s Mammoth Collection, 1883; pg. 87. Jerry Holland – “Crystal Clear” (2000).

LITTLE JUDY. AKA and see “The Green Mountain
[2],” “The Haymaker (Reel) [1],”
“Indy’s Favorite,” “Judy’s Reel,” “The Maid Behind the Bar [1].”
Irish, Reel. D Major. Standard tuning. AABB. Button-accordionist Joe Derrane
learned the tune by this title from Boston musicians in the 1940's. The tune
appears in D/C# button accordion player Jerry O’Brien’s accordion tutor, and
since O’Brien was Derrane’s mentor it is likely they either both learned it (or
the title) from the same sources, or Derrane learned it from O’Brien. O’Brien was
originally from County Cork, and recorded the tune in New York in 1928, playing
the melodeon. See the tune under the titles “Judy’s Reel” and “Indy’s Reel”,
both from Ryan’s Mammoth Collection
(1883). Elias Howe, a Boston publisher, included the melody (as “Little Judy’s
Reel”) in his c. 1867 1000 Jigs and Reels, identifying it as an 8-Hand Reel
with the alternate title “Married Behind the Bar.” Howe also includes dance
instructions below the melody. O’Neill printed the melody as “The Green
Mountain,” and it was recorded in the 78 RPM era as “The Haymaker.” Source for
notated version: R.P. Christeson learned the melody from Philadelphia, Pa.,
Irish fiddlers who attended the Lenape old fiddlers’ reunions in the 1960's
[Christeson]. Howe (1000 Jigs and Reels),
c. 1867; pg. 32. O’Brien (Jerry O’Brien’s
Accordion Instructor), 1949. R.P. Christeson (Old Time Fiddler’s Repertory, vol. 2), 1984; No. 91, pg. 59. Green Linnett SIF 1149, Joe Derrane - “Give Us Another.”

LITTLE MAGGIE. Old‑Time, Bluegrass; Breakdown and Song. USA; western North
Carolina, southwestern Virginia. A Mixolydian. Recorded by the Stanley Brothers
in 1946, when their music was more old‑time than bluegrass in style. Mt.
Airy, North Carolina, fiddler Tommy Jarrell remembered the tune "going
around" the Round Peak area (where he grew up) around 1915 or 1916, and
became quite popular with the younger folk. A tragedy occured about the same
time when his 14 year old cousin, Jullie Jarrell, was tending a fire in the
kitchen stove and, thinking it was out, poured kerosine over the wood to renew
it which suddenly caused flames to flare and severely burn her. Tommy related:

***

I was coming from the mill on horseback carrying a sack of

cornmeal and all at once I saw the smoke and heard the younguns

come running towards me crying, 'Jullie's burnt up and the

house is a‑fire.' I jumped off the horse and ran as fast as I
could

to the house‑‑later I though about how much faster I could
have

gotten there by throwing the meal off and riding the horse, but

you don't think clear at times like that. When I reached the door

I saw Aunt Susan kneeling on the floor above Julie, weeping,

her hands all blistered from beating out the fire with a quilt.

Jullie was laying there crying, but there wasn't much we could

do for her so we ran to the spring for water to put out the fire

in the house. They put Jullie to bed right away‑‑her whole
body

was burned up to her chin, and at first she cried in pain but

after a while she didn't feel anything at all. That evening as

she was laying there she asked me to get my banjo and sing

"Little Maggie" for her. That was the only thing she wanted

to hear‑‑it had just recently come around and everyone

seemed to take to it. I expect I played it the best I ever had

in my life, with the most feeling, anyway. It seemed to comfort

her and pick up her spirits a little, but by the following morning

she was dead.(Richard Nevins)

***

The song appears to have been played
in neighbouring Grayson County, Virginia, a generation earlier, according to
Richard Nevins, which points out how isolated the mountainous regions were
around the turn of the century.

LITTLE MIRE BRANCH. Old‑Time. The tune has been identified as having been distinct to
the Rocky Ridge, Alabama, region.

LITTLE MOLLY O! (Mairin Beag O!). Irish, Air (3/4 time). G Major. Standard
tuning. AB. The Irish collector Edward Bunting maintains that this triple-time
air was the original from which developed the famous (duple-time) "Molly Asthore" (Molly My Treasure)
though O'Sullivan (1983) thinks there is little evidence either way. He finds a
4/4 version of Bunting's tune in MacBean's Songs
and Hymns of the Gael (1900) under the title "Mo Mhali Bheag Og" (My Dear
Little May) {along with five verses with the note "Composed by a Highland
officer, who accidentally killed a lady"). The melody was played by harper
James Duncan (1747-c. 1800) at the famous Belfast Harp Festival in 1792.
According to contemporary harper Arthur O’Neill, Duncan was born into a wealthy
family and received his training on the harp as part of his education. He had a
reputation as an excellent performer. Source for notated version: Bunting noted
the tune (along with "Molly Astore") from the harper Charles Fannin
in 1792. Bunting (Ancient Irish Music),
1840. Heymann (Legacy of the 1792 Belfast
Harp Festival), 1992; pg. 32. O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies),
1979; No. 162, pg. 28. O'Sullivan/Bunting, 1983; No. 90, pgs. 134-135.

LITTLE MOSES. AKA and see “Coon on a Log.”
Old-Time, Breakdown. USA, North Carolina. G Major. The title is a regional one,
from the Carolina flatlands. Marimac 9064D, Lauchlin
Stamper & A.C. Overton - “Sally with the Run Down Shoes” (1996).

LITTLE
OLD LOG CABIN (DOWN/IN THE LANE). Old-Time, Song Tune. The song was
written and published in 1871 by a Kentucky riverman turned vaudeville
songwriter, Will Hayes. It was recorded in October, 1925 for Edison by Fiddlin'
Cowan Powers and Family, who had waxed an earlier version for Victor, in
August, 1924 (though for that particular side the Victor company brought in
Carson Robison to perform the vocal). The piece was first released in 1923,
however, when Fiddlin' John Carson's (north Georgia) version became the second
best-selling country music record for that year. Yet another performance,
Ernest Stoneman's, made the charts that decade, in 1926 when his version became
the fifth best-selling country music record.

LITTLE RABBIT. AKA and see "Rabbit,
Where's Your Mammy? [1],” “Pretty
Little Gal [1],” "Pretty
Little Miss [1]," "Brown's
Dream [1]," "Herve
Brown's Dream," "John
Brown's Dream," "Walk
Along John to Kansas." Old‑Time, Breakdown. USA; Oklahoma,
Arizona. D Major (Johnson, Kuntz): A Major (Brody, Kaufman, Phillips, Welling).
Standard or ADae, AEae, or C#Aea tunings. AB (Silberberg): AABB'CC' (Kaufman):
AABBCCDD (Kuntz, Welling): AABBCCDDEE (Brody, Johnson): AABBCCDDEE' (Phillips).
The melody is related to "Boatman." Most modern versions are based on
the Crockett Mountaineers recording of “Little Rabbit,” which is actually a
pastiche of two or more tunes, including “Little Rabbit” (similar to versions
of the “John Brown’s Dream” tune family) {‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ parts}and “Rabbit
Where’s Your Mammy” {‘D’ and ‘E’ parts}. This combination is oft-repeated in
modern times—so much so that the 5-part piece is sometimes thought of as only
one tune (“Little Rabbit”). Several parts belong to a family of tunes that
includes ,” “Brownstream,” “Herv Brown’s Dream,” “Jimmy Johnson
Pass That Jug Around the Hill,” “John Brown's Dream,” “Pretty Little Girl,” “Stillhouse Branch” “Table Mountain Road” and others. The tune
family is a common a popular one in the Blue Ridge Mountains, where it probably
originated but has since been disseminated. This ditty is frequently sung to the last part of the piece:

***

Little Rabbit where's your mammy?

Little Rabbit where's your mammy?

I want to see your mammy,

Tell me rabbit where's your mammy?

***

California
mandolin and fiddler player Kenny Hall recalled that Crockett’s Kentucky
Mountaineers removed to Hollywood from Kentucky in the 1920’s to further their
careers. Hall, who has lived in Fresno since the 1950’s, met the elderly
Crocket who was then in retirement and was told that the Crockett family had
played “Little Rabbit Where’s Your Mammy” for a Bugs Bunny cartoon sometime in
the 1930’s (from an interview with Kenny Hall by Gus Garelick).

LITTLE ROSE (IS GONE). AKA and see "That's My Rabbit, My Dog
Caught It." Old‑Time, Breakdown. USA, West Virginia. A Dorian.
Standard tuning. AB. The tune, at least the first part, is a version of
"That's My Rabbit, My Dog Caught It," recorded by the Walter Family
of Woodford County, Ky. Wilson Douglas, a West Virginia fiddler who also
recorded the tune, said of its origins:

***

That's a slow one. That's one of French's
(Carpenter, Douglas's

mentor) specials. He liked to play that, especially when he

felt a little bad. It's about as old a tune as you'll hear. There

were two pioneers, we'll call them frontier man and his wife.

They settled somewhere in the southern part of West Virginia,

way back. Her name was Rose and her husband came in one

day and she was gone. They never did find her. They didn't

know if Indians had killed her or taken her captive. This old

fellow had some kind of an old fiddle with gut strings. He

was grieving so, he composed this tune and called it the 'Little

Rose.' French said his grandfather Saul told him that tale and

he played it just like he was grieving. That old slow time, see?

(from an interview with Nancy
McClellan).

***

Gerry Milnes also collected the tune
and story from Douglas, although at that time the story told was different in
some details. According to Milnes, Douglas told him his version of “Little
Rose” was composed by Harmon Carpenter, a Civil War soldier, who left his
fiancé, Rose, to go and fight in the war. Upon his return he found that Rose
had been murdered by nightriders, whereupon he took up his fiddle and composed
the tune. The nightriders were Jayhawkers, Union sympathizers in a guerrilla
war fought in the West Virginia mountains where there was much sympathy for the
northern cause. Harmon had evidently joined the Confederate army, and thus his loved
ones were targeted.

LITTLE
SACK OF POTATOES, THE.Micho Russell
(1915-1944), tin-whistle player and a storehouse of folk tales and traditions,
traced the advent of the concertina in County Clare to the Maloney family,
whose members introduced and popularized the instrument until “in the old days
there was a concertina mostly in every house in north Clare.” Russell
maintained “the first tune you’d learn on the concertina would be ‘The Little
Sack of Potatoes’” (Piggott, Blooming
Meadows, 1998).

LITTLE SALLY WATERS. American, Reel. USA, southwestern Pa. D Major (Bayard‑Bryner): G
Major (Bayard‑Miller/Gelnette). Standard tuning. AA'B or ABB. Bayard
(1981) takes this to be a dance tune that was based on a song tune. In this he
was correct, as Seattle fiddler, producer and folklorist Vivian Williams has
discovered that a song called "The Babies on Our Block" by the
songwriting team of Edward Harrigan and Dave Braham, from the Broadway hit show
The Mulligan Guard Hall (1879) provides the melody for “Little Sally
Waters.” The title appears in
a list of traditional Ozark Mountain fiddle tunes compiled by
musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954. Vivian writes: “The
chorus of the song uses the words from the old play party, but the melody is
completely different…In Michigan fiddler Les Raber's tunebook "Come Dance
With Me" there is a version of the same tune, along with mention of a
special dance that was done to it. I found the dance in the 1890
"Round Dancing" instruction book by M.B. Gilbert, which is on the
Library of Congress website's collection of dance instruction manuals.” Vivian
also has found a version of the tune in a hand-written music manuscript from
western Oregon, dating from the 1860's and 1870's, which, like many manuscripts
was retained in a musical family and added to by various members or
generations. Source for
notated version: James Bryner (Fayette County, Pa., 1960) and Fred Miller/Glenn
Gelnette (Jefferson County, Pa., 1949) [Bayard]. Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 259A‑B, pg. 221.

LITTLE STACK OF BARLEY
[2], THE (An Staicin
Eorna). Irish,
Air (4/4 time). F Major. Standard tuning. AB. Other settins of this tune have
been published. Forde gives three, from Paddy Conneely (the Galway piper), High
O'Beirne (the Leitrim fiddler), and Mr. MacDowell, respectively. Conneely's
version (which I give here) is different from the others, and I think it very
fine‑‑the finest of all‑‑ published or unpublished. It
is, more than the others, a vocal setting, and has not been hitherto
printed" (Joyce).

***

Breathnach
(1997) records a story originally related by a man named Wayland (a founder and
secretary of the Cork Piper’s Club at the turn of the 20th century),
who mentions the air in connection with the blind piper Michael O’Sullivan.
O’Sullivan has been called the last of the old Kerry Pipers, and lived for a
time in Worcester, Massachusetts, before returning to Ireland where he died in
the poorhouse in Cahirciveen in 1916.The piper was a man of many exceedingly eccentric fancies and
superstitions. He left Cork because he was convinced that his landlady was
feeding him fairy butter, although it appears he had also been called away to
see after his mother’s funeral.Dismayed to find that there was no longer a tradition of keening women
at funerals, O’Sullivan was convinced to play his pipes. His mother’s coffin
was loaded onto an ass-drawn cart for the trip to the graveyard, and O’Sullivan
followed behind playing and singing every verse of “Seo leo, a thoil, is ná
goil go fóill.” When he returned home very late after the funeral her heard a
voice singing “An Staicin Eornan,” and was so moved by the eloquance of the
music that he strapped on his pipes and played the air.

***

Upon
arising the next day the piper was disconcerted to find that his finger-nail
hurt badly, and he sent for the doctor, who removed a grain of barley from the
finger.O’Sullivan took this as a sign
that the singing he had heard the previous night was the voice of one of the
fairy folk, and this was confirmed for him when the finger healed but remained
lifeless, despite the doctor’s ministrations.He sought the advice of a travelling woman whom he knew who told him to
stop playing the pipes for a month, and this he did. When the month was up
O’Sullivan went to Bord Eoinín with his instrument, and again met the
traveller. He said that he held no hope that he would play well, despairing
that there were better pipers now than he, but she told him that he would make
money that night.It was a while before
he was asked to play, waiting while pipers from all over the country played,
but when he did at last “they thought the cups were dancing on the dresser and
he was kept playing until daylight. He was acclaimed the finest piper in all
Ireland” (Breathnach, The Man and His
Music, pg. 51).

LITTLE WILLIE. Old‑Time, Breakdown. USA, Mississippi. A Major. The melody was
recorded in 1939 for the Library of Congress by Herbert Halpert from the
playing of Choctaw County, Mississippi, fiddler Charles Long.

LITTLE WOT YE WHA'S
COMING. AKA and see "The Highland Muster Roll, 1715,"
“Tail Tod(d)le.” English, Reel. England,
Northumberland. G Major. Standard tuning. AABBCCDD. A Northumbrian version of
the Scottish tune “Tail Tod(d)le.” Title
appears in Henry Robson's list of popular Northumbrian song and dance tunes
("The Northern Minstrel's Budget"), which he published c. 1800.
"This is really a pipe tune, but whether English or Scottish is we
believe, an open question. It has appeared in Scottish collections as 'The
Highland Muster Roll, 1715,' though it only appeared in print in Johnson's Scots Musical Museum, vol. VI., 1803.
The Antiquarian Society possesses a MS copy or the date 1770. The song in
Johnson is a catalogue of the Jacobite chieftains, who were expected to rise in
1715, and amongst others named are—

***

Derwentwater and Forster's coming,

Witherington and Nairn's coming,

Little wot ye wha's coming, &c.

***

It is known from tradition that a
similar Northumbrian ballad was also sung to this tune, a scrap of which only
is preserved—

***

Little wot ye whe's coming,

Bonny Boweree's coming—

***

the Boweree named being the
celebrated William Charlton, of the Bower, near Reedsmouth, called from the
name of his estate 'Bowery Charlton', whose rough, rude disposition and violent
temper led him into many troubles, and frequently brought him within the power
of the law" (Bruce & Stokoe). Bruce & Stokoe (Northumbrian Minstrelsy), 1882; pgs. 186‑187.

LIZA JANE [2]. See "Little Liza Jane,"
"Tumblin' Creek Liza Jane,"
and "I Lost My Liza Jane."
Old-Time, Breakdown. USA, Kentucky. A Major. Standard tuning. AABB. From
fiddler J.P Fraley, of Rush, Kentucky. Fraley was born in 1927 near Hitchins,
Carter County, and learned much of his fiddling and some repertoire from his
father Richard, a farmer. Jeff Titon (2001) says that when the family had
business in Ashland, Richard dropped J.P. off to listen for hours to regional
great Ed Haley play on the street corner, so as to increase his tutelage.
Source for notated version: Greg Canote (Seattle) [Silberberg]. Silberberg (Tunes
I Learned at Tractor Tavern), 2002; pg. 90. Songer (Portland Collection), 1997; pg. 128. The
String Beings - “Late for the Dance.”

LIZA JANE [3]. AKA and see "'Lasses Cane,"
“Little Dutch Girl [2],” "Poor Liza Jane." Old‑Time,
Breakdown. USA; Oklahoma, Missouri. A Mixolydian (Brody, Phillips): G Major.
AEae or Standard tunings. ABB (Thede): AABB (Brody, Phillips). The “Liza Jane”
family of tunes includes a number of related variants going by a variety of
related titles, such as “Old Time Liza Jane,” “Poor Liza Jane,” “'Lasses Cane,” “Goodbye Liza Jane,” “Little Liza Jane [1],” and so on. In the
repertoire of Uncle Jimmy Thompson (1848‑1931) {Texas, Tennessee}.
Recorded in 1939 for the Library of Congress by Herbert Halpert from the playing
of Newton County, Mississippi, fiddler Hardy Sharp (b. 1884). See also "My
Little Dony" for another Mississippi collected version in this song/tune
family.

LIZA JANE [4]. American, March (2/4 time). USA, southwestern Pa. G Major. Standard
tuning. AB. A fifer's tune seemingly derived from a spiritual song known in
northern West Virginia and southwestern Pa., perhaps "My Father's Gone to
View That Land," "My Daddy," or one beginning "There is a
happy land...". This melody is the one fomerly learned in elementary
school to which a chorus is sung:

LLYDAW (Brittany). Welsh, Air. Robin Huw Bowen thinks this hymn
air originated in Brittany, but was transported to Wales. Flying Fish FF70610, Robin Huw Bowen – “Telyn Berseiniol fy
Ngwlad/Welsh Music on the Welsh Triple Harp” (1996. From the playing of Dafydd
and Gwyndaf Roberts {Ar Log}, who had it from Nansi Richards).